Before Midnight is a flawless deliberation on what happens when romantic love becomes real work

 

As I commented in my recent review of Stuck In Love, I’m not what you would call a fan of romantic movies.

Regardless of the suffix (romcom, romdram, rom sci-fi), the tropes of filmic love – eyes meeting across a crowded room, the initial dislike, the banter, repartee, the eventual kiss – do nothing for me.…

Summer in February is rainy afternoon of a film

If there’s one thing the British film industry has over our brasher, better-financed American cousins, it’s our monopoly over the formal period drama.

Summer in February is a fictionalized account of the documented love triangle between aspiring artist Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning), land agent Captain Gilbert Evans (Dan Stevens) and rural painter AJ Munnings (Dominic Cooper).

Though it flirts with darkness, Man of Steel walks in the sun

 

It’s safe to say we live in a Golden Age of superhero films, and, as with all renaissances, there comes with this a certain pressure, a certain set of standards.

Nowadays a superhero film has to be about more than simply believing a man can fly: we need to believe in them as human beings.…

Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing is Shakespeare everyone can get excited about

 

Say what you want about old Bill Shakespeare, but he was certainly brave with his titles.

No contemporary writer would give their play a title that so openly embraced it being a farce, a comedic situation in which a great deal is made of very little.…

Stuck in Love is a romcom-dram-thing that’s well worth a look

Before I start this review, I’ll provide a disclaimer: I don’t usually watch romantic films.

It’s not like a badge of pride with me or anything, but it’s just not a plot feature I’m particularly interested in paying to see (and in this case, I didn’t).

Stone Roses: Made of Stone is an edifice in need of a purpose

“A clear horizon — nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive…

I can’t bear quarreling, I can’t bear feelings between people — I think hatred is wasted energy, and it’s all non-productive. I’m very sensitive — a sharp word, said by a person, say, who has a temper, if they’re close to me, hurts me for days.

Behind the Candelabra seeks the flesh behind the fabric and gold leaf

 

Has any superstar disappeared from the public consciousness as fully as Liberace?

The man once known as the world’s greatest entertainer, Elvis before there was an Elvis, is now, twenty-five years after his death, all but unknown to the current generation.

The Iceman is a cool but hollow affair, despite Shannon’s chilling performance

 

What’s with our obsession with people, usually men, who do very bad things and the current trend for trying to make us sympathize with them, serial killers especially?

Say what you want about the moral ambiguity of the age in which we live, but for or every Zodiac that makes a game of tracking down the monster, there’s a Badlands that romanticizes their exploits or a Seven Psychopaths making them figures of fun.…

The Hangover Part 3: Merry ride or bad trip?

I’d like to kick this review off with a question: can anyone name a movie trilogy in which the third installment was not the weakest?

The Matrix Revolutions. The Dark Knight Rises. The Godfather Part 3. Even Return of the Jedi has garnered the most criticism of the original Star Wars trilogy (the Ewoks can probably be considered the start of George Lucas’ descent into Jar Jar Binks inanity).…

The Great Gatsby is a glorious encapsulation of the Roaring Twenties but has little to say for it

Great literary adaptations can occur in the most unexpected of places.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is widely regarded as one of the greatest works of fiction ever written and its 1962 adaptation starring Gregory Peck comes in at #25 on the AFI’s list of greatest American movies.…